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Groups of young men running after trucks that have come to dispose
of waste in open dumps. Or dirty children picking materials amidst
the smoke and stench of the garbage. These images of waste-picking
fit the common perception that African cities are dysfunctional.
But African cities do function – only not in the ways planners and
development experts expect them to.
Recycling
in Kaduna
beyond dysfunctIonalIty:
behInd the seemIng chaos is a constant, complex but struc tured flow of individuals and materials. Waste-pick-ing and informal sector recyclWaste-pick-ing generally takes place in various settings and involves a wide range of interconnec-ted actors.
Kaduna is a declining industrial town in north-central Ni ge ria. Apart from the general economic crisis facing the cities across the country, in Kaduna the problem has been compounded by a spate of ethno-religious crises in recent years, which have driven investors to nearby Abuja, Nige-ria’s capi tal. However, some factories remain, including a car assem bly plant, construction companies and others pro ducing beer, soft drinks, building materials and house-hold products.
The story of solid waste management in Kaduna is a fa-miliar one. There is no formal waste sorting or recycling; not all the waste produced is collected; and waste is
dis-posed of in open dumps and even illegally in public spaces. Figures obtained from the government put the amount of biodegradable waste produced per day in Kaduna at 2.1 tons, while non-degradable waste amounts to 8.2 tons per day. The latter, comprising mainly metal, paper, plastic and glass, forms the bulk of the material found in the informal recycling sector.
the Informal sector has positioned itself to target waste at specific crucial points: households, streets and other pub-lic spaces, dumps and factories. The household is a ma jor source of waste. An informal waste-sorting system has emer-ged largely through the activities of itinerant waste-pickers, known locally as mai kwalabe, whose main area of opera-tion is high-density low-income areas. Mai kwalabe is a Hausa word meaning someone who deals in bottles. While old bottles used to be the only material collected, the busi-Dr Onyanta Adama-Ajonye is a researcher
at the Nordic Africa Institute. She is responsible for the research project “Beyond Poverty: An insight into the informal solid waste recycling sector in Kaduna, Nigeria”.
urban/ onyanta adama-ajonye
39 ness has expanded to include items such as second-hand
shoes and aluminium cooking pots. The collectors adver-tise themselves by chanting mai kwalabe on the streets. When they find a customer, the materials are assessed and the price negotiated with households. The price is generally not much, since people are happy to get rid of the waste.
In some cases, children also gather used perfume and body-cream bottles to sell to mai kwalabe. The children are offered a little cash or sweets in exchange. In house-holds where Islamic injunctions prevent women from
lea-Recycling
in Kaduna
ving their houses, doing business with the mai kwalabe may be the only opportunity the women have to engage in an economic activity.
another group deserVIng of mention is what I call “op-portunistic waste-pickers”, children between the ages of five and ten. They sort and keep waste, particularly plastics and light metal from their own homes and from neighbours, and sell to middlemen in their neighbourhood.
Public spaces, ranging from streets to markets and busi-ness premises, are another important source of materials for waste-pickers.
One important and active group is the almajiri, Muslim children in Koranic schools. Parents bring children to such schools from the age of four or five and leave them with a mallam or Islamic scholar to study the Koran. The mallam is supposed to provide accommodation and food, but in many cases they fail to fulfil their obligations. It is common to see almajiri begging on the streets, but the more resourceful among them have taken to waste-picking to feed themselves. Almajiri sell their materials, mainly light me-tals and plastics, to middlemen.
As noted earlier, the official waste disposal system is open dumping. Waste from households and factories is dumped at two sites in the city. There is no official sorting, but some of the personnel working for the waste-disposal contrac-tors sort and pick waste. Waste-pickers are also allow ed to come on to the dump sites to scavenge. These groups of
pickers also sell to middlemen.
» An informal waste-sorting system has
emer ged largely through the activities of
itinerant waste-pickers, known locally as mai
kwalabe’[…] a Hausa word meaning someone
who deals in bottles.«
A yan bola in Kaduna, a local word referring to young boys who make money from picking up waste materials from public places. Ph oto s: o n ya nt a a da M aa jo n ye Photo s: o n ya nt a a da M aa jo n ye
40
the factorIes and companIes are a huge source of waste materials. The major actors here are former waste-pickers who have made enough money to become middlemen. In many ca-ses, the companies call the middlemen to come and buy or collect the waste materials. There are different kinds of arrangements for different companies. For example, when middlemen go to buy scrap metal from Sunglass Bottles, they also sell bottles to the plant. The waste, once bought, is sorted into various categories: tin, steel, special metal, caterpillar and glass.Some of these materials are sold locally to artisans, but most of the waste is transported to recycling companies across the country. If the middleman has no links with a recycling company, he can sell his materials to an agent at the gate, but at a lower price than the recycling company offers. The agent then sells the materials to the company. Agents are individuals with enough capital to buy huge quantities of waste material directly from the waste-pro-ducing companies or from middlemen. Some middlemen with enough capital also double as agents.
the aboVe account depIcts a system with an apprecia-ble level of connectivity and interdependence. Particular
types of waste are picked from specific places by specific actors. Age and gender are determinants. Children domi-nate the lower end of the chain. There is no female waste-picker or “middlewoman”.
Actors are intrinsically linked from the beginning of the chain to the end. The producers of waste – households and companies – have established links with the waste-pick-ers. It is common for a resident to refer to my mai kwa labe. Waste-pickers are the link between generators of waste and middlemen, while middlemen link waste-pickers to the final endusers, the recycling plants. The link between waste
-»While people become waste-pickers
primarily to earn a living, informal sector
recycling has broader implications
for urban liveability and environmental
sustainability.«
pick ers and middlemen is particularly interesting and pro-vides some sense of continuity since, in many cases, it is waste-pickers that eventually become middlemen. WhIle people become waste-pickers primarily to earn a living, informal sector recycling has broader implications for urban liveability and environmental sustainability. If a major aim of municipal solid waste management is to move up the waste hierarchy, then informal sector recycling is making valuable contributions by limiting the amount of waste going for final disposal. In the case of Kaduna, it is only the informal sector that is performing this function. n Children waste-pickers eagerly awaiting the result
as they put their load on the scale.
Ph oto : o n ya nt a a da M aa jo n ye
